It seems like everyone has seen the episode of “I Love Lucy” where Lucy and Ethyl cannot keep up with the chocolates conveyor. Very funny entertainment, but not in your cost-effective production facility.

An application where the dexterity, speed and accuracy of robots can create big gains on the production line for manufactures is Pick-and-place. When a very high rate of speed is required for moving small parts a short distance, pick and place robots are very effectively applied.

As rates of up to 150 picks per minute can be achieved, robots can help eliminate very tedious repetitive tasks, increasing thought-put while reducing floor space. Some example applications are: High speed case packing of small items, such as soup envelopes, into consumer packaging cartons Cartooning of cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, small bottles Inserting condiments pouches into a prepared food item carton.

Typically pick and place robots are coupled with vision systems and line tracking electronic controls to identify pick points.